STS.011 American Science: Ethical Conflicts and Political

MIT OpenCourseWare http://ocw.mit.edu

STS.011 American Science: Ethical Conflicts and Political Choices Fall 2007

For information about citing these materials or our Terms of Use, visit: http://ocw.mit.edu/terms.

http://ocw.mit.edu

http://ocw.mit.edu/terms

Cold War Science and Technology:Military-Industrial-University complex

Lecture - STS.011 – 9/19/07Dr. Brendan Foley

[N]owhere in the Governmental structure receiving its funds from Congress is there an agency adapted to supplementing the supportof basic research in the universities, both in medicine and the natural sciences; adapted to supporting research on new weapons for bothServices; or adapted to administering a program of science scholarships and fellowships.

A new agency should be established, therefore, by the Congress for the purpose. Such an agency, moreover, should be an independent agency devoted to the support of scientific research and advanced scientific education alone.

Vannevar Bush, 1945Director, OSRD

Science: The Endless Frontier

General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Allied Commander

Photo: U.S. National Archives.

“In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

Akin to, and largely responsible for the sweeping changes in ourindustrial-military posture, has been the technological revolution during recent decades. In this revolution, research has become central; it also becomes more formalized, complex, and costly.

The prospect of domination of the nation's scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present and is gravely to be regarded.

Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite.”

President Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1961

Military systems transferred to peaceful uses: – Interchangeable parts manufacturing (back to 1840s)– ARPANET → internet– ICBMs → space program; satellite communications,

inertial guidance systems (commercial airliner navigation)

– Radar and sonar– Digital computing (from Project Sage and Project

Whirlwind)– Nuclear weapons and research → nuclear power (one

facet: Doc Edgerton’s strobe photography) – Global Positioning System– Naval war fighting, intelligence gathering, and

espionage → deep submergence technology

Deep submergence technology

• Submarine fleet: SSBN force, SSN counterforce • Enabling technologies: nuclear energy, inertial

guidance, digital computing• SOSUS (SOund SUrveillance System) net and sonar (Doc

Edgerton again)

• Materials science• Global Positioning System

Sherry Sontag and Christopher Drew, Blind Man’s Bluff

Loss of USS Thresher, 1961

Photo: Naval Historical Center


Earliest attempts - Bathyscaphe TRIESTE



Literally, a gas bag




And again in 1968: loss of USS Scorpion



The real deep submergence story begins 35,000 over Spain, 1966…

Courtesy of Boeing Corporation. Used with permission.

Hydrogen bomb recovered on land at Palomares.Three bombs fell on land, one fell into Mediterranean Sea.

Photo: U.S. Navy

WHOI submersible ALVIN

• 1.83 m diameter sphere in housing• crew of 3• now depth rated to 4500 m

Courtesy of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Used with permission.


Alvin grapples the H-bomb

at 800 meters,parachute and

shrouds enveloping manipulator Photo removed due to copyright restrictions.

See Lewis, Flora. One of Our H-Bombs Is Missing. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 1967.

U.S. Navy’s RemotelyOperated Vehicle, 1966

Images: U.S. Navy

Photo: U.S. Navy

Photo: U.S. Navy

Lessons learned from H-bomb recovery

• Possible to work in deep water• Manned systems (Alvin) good for identifying

objects on seafloor, but limited in dive duration and comfort

• ROVs promising technology, and keep people safely on surface

* Lessons applied to surveys of USS Thresher, USS Scorpion (and Soviet losses?)

Launch of Polaris missilefrom submerged “boomer”

Gravimetry essential foraccurate ICBM targeting –initial conditions calculationslargest error component intrajectory estimates

Photo: U.S. Navy

Seafloor observations result in significant discoveries


(French-American Mid-Ocean Undersea Study)

Map image removed due to copyright restrictions. "World Ocean Floor" by Heezen and Tharp.

See: http://www.earthinstitute.columbia.edu/news/2006/images/HeezenTharp_900.jpg

Project FAMOUS - 1974First observations and mapping

of the mid-ocean ridge crest

http://www.earthinstitute.columbia.edu/news/2006/images/HeezenTharp_900.jpg

Exploration of the deep ocean by geologists possible with the enabling

technology, Alvin.

Exploration of the deep ocean by geologists possible with the enabling

technology, Alvin.

Two map images removed due to copyright restrictions.

Map: National Geophysical Data Center, NOAA.


Confirmation of mid-ocean ridge volcanismMid-Atlantic Ridge (FAMOUS) 36°N–1974

Discovery of hydrothermal vent communities Galápagos Rift 86°W–1977

Discovery of black smoker hydrothermal vents East Pacific Rise 21°N–1979

Confirmation of midConfirmation of mid--ocean ridge volcanismocean ridge volcanismMidMid--Atlantic Ridge (FAMOUS) 36Atlantic Ridge (FAMOUS) 36°°NN––19741974

Discovery of hydrothermal vent communities Discovery of hydrothermal vent communities GalGaláápagos Rift 86pagos Rift 86°°WW––19771977

Discovery of black smoker hydrothermal vents Discovery of black smoker hydrothermal vents East Pacific Rise 21East Pacific Rise 21°°NN––19791979

Observation of high bacterial production during eruption, East Pacific Rise 9°50’N–1991Sparked continuing interest in a subsurface biosphere, life in extreme environments, and deep-sea microbiology

Observation of high bacterial production during Observation of high bacterial production during eruption, East Pacific Rise 9eruption, East Pacific Rise 9°°5050’’NN––19911991Sparked continuing interest in a subsurface Sparked continuing interest in a subsurface biosphere, life in extreme environments, and deepbiosphere, life in extreme environments, and deep--sea microbiologysea microbiology


Seafloor observations result in Seafloor observations result in significant discoveriessignificant discoveries


Discovery of hydrothermal vent communities Galápagos Rift 86°W - 1977




Photomosaic130 electronic still images combined

Scanning sonar3D rendering

These Jason maps used to help Alvin and ROPOS Operations

Yoerger et al IJRR 2003

Two images of hydrothermal vent removed due to copyright restrictions.Photomosaic and 3D sonar map.

Time series studies of vent colonization Global vent biogeography & microbiology

Time series studies of vent colonization Global vent biogeography & microbiology




Deep submergence started with search forlost objects; the deepseafloor is littered with the material remains of our past.

Titanic, 1986 – Reaganand the Soviets

Image removed due to copyright restrictions.Painting of submersible exploring wreckage of Titanic, by artist Ken Marschall.

Tethered to ALVIN, ROV Jason Jr. peers into window on Titanic


Another application of chemical sensing:U.S. disposal at sea

64 million lbs chem weapons400,000 bombs and rockets

1958 disposal of Liberty ship

William C. Ralstonoff San Francisco,

loaded with Lewisite and mustard gas Photos: U.S. Army

2005 - 318 pieces unexploded ordnance recovered off U.S. east coast

Dover AFB EOD technicianinjured by 75 mm mustard gasshell in driveway

Photos: U.S. Army

2003 photomosaic Skerki D

Courtesy of Institute for Exploration. Used with permission.

ClassicalBronzestatues

all found underwater

Photos: Brendan Foley

Documents

STS.011 American Science: Ethical Conflicts and Political